Roles of calcium sensitivity of α-actinin during cell migration.

• Main Author: Liow, Lu Ting.
• Other Authors: School of Biological Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Cytology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/45115
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

α-actinin is an actin crosslinking protein localized along actin filaments and focal adhesions in non-musle cells. It has been shown that α-actinin is sensitive to calcium in vitro. However, the role of calcium sensitivity in vivo remains unknown. Recently, we have successfully generated a calcium insensitive α-actinin mutant. In this study, I have investigated the role of calcium sensitivity of α -actinin in cell migration by using a powerful combination of techniques including live-cell analysis and molecular manipulations. I found that EFM-GFP expression caused defects in cell migration by stabilizing focal adhesions through affecting the size of other focal adhesion proteins, paxillin and vinculin and actin organization. These results suggest that calcium sensitivity of α -actinin is essential for proper cell migration by regulating the focal adhesion and actin dynamics.